Humidity Ppt Small Group Activity ANSWERS

SCI 10: Weather Dynamics

Humidity ppt Small Group Activity – ANSWERS Look through the handouts of information provided, and answer the following questions into your binder.

1) What is the dry bulb temperature? Give an example of when it would be important to consider the dry bulb temperature? The dry bulb temperature is referred to as air temperature. It is indicated by a thermometer not affected by the moisture in the air (it does not indicated the amount of moisture in the air). The dry bulb temperature saturated moisture represents the absolute humidity (how much water vapour air could hold if it were saturated, or ‘full’).

It would be important to consider the dry bulb temperature when designing a building for a certain climate for comfort and building energy efficiency (insulation, etc).

2) What is the wet bulb temperature? Give an example of when you might experience this in everyday life. The wet bulb temperature is an indication of the amount of moisture in the air. Its saturated moisture represents the actual humidity (how much water vapour there actually is in the air compared to the amount of water vapour the air could hold if it were saturated or ‘full’).

An example of when you might experience wet bulb temperature in everyday life, is when you are getting out of a lake or pool, and your skin is still wet and exposed to moving air (this usually feels colder than when your skin is dry).

3) a) What is the Dew Point temperature? The dew point temperature is the temperature at which water vapour starts to condense out of the air

(the temperature at which the air becomes completely saturated).

b) What does a high relative humidity determine about the dew point? A high relative humidity (how much water vapour there is in the air compared to how much there could be in saturated air) means that the dew-point temperature is close to the dry air temperature.

c) What is one profession for which determining the dew point is important. The dew point is an important statistic for general aviation pilots, as it is used to calculate the likelihood of carburetor icing and fog, and to estimate the height of the cloud base.

4) When would the wet bulb and the dry bulb temperatures be the same? The wet bulb temperature is always lower than the dry bulb temperature, except at100% relative humidity (when the air is saturated with water vapour). At 100% relative humidity, the wet bulb and

dry bulb temperatures would be the same.

Kluge 2011